A Sky Sports presenter has been forced to apologise on air after former England football manager Terry Venables appeared to make a homophobic joke.

The Mail reports Venables made the remark on Sky Sports Goals on Sunday programme.

Speaking about the 1991 FA Cup final at Wembley, Venables told an anecdote about how the then Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough held his hand as Forest and Tottenham Hotspur walked out onto the pitch.

Venables, who was managing Spurs at the time, recalled: “As I come out he grips my right hand with his left hand and I’m clamped, I’m clamped.”

The 71-year-old pundit appears to say they looked like a “pair of woofters”.

Sky Sports presenter and former footballer Chris Kamara, sitting on the sofa opposite, then laughed loudly, while the show’s host Ben Shephard, who also co-hosts ITV’s Good Morning Britain, looked uncomfortable.

Shephard then apologised for the remarks.

Many social media commentators were unimpressed with Venables remarks.

Alan Machnik took to Twitter to say: “Terry Venables on Goals on Sunday using the phrase ‘couple of woofters’. Apparently he’s now booked for Top Gear to talk about black people.”

Barry Collins tweeted: “Whoops. A bit of low-level homophobia from Terry Venables on Goals on Sunday. That’ll do his job prospects the world of good.”

In response, Richard Lane, spokesman for gay rights charity Stonewall, said: “This kind of language might have been acceptable in 1991 but seems really rather dated in Britain today.”